We are moving on again today after doing our best to kill Lynn and Leslie on Dunk Island yesterday!

We arrived in South Mission Beach on Monday after leaving Cairns behind and booked ourselves onto the boat taxi across to Dunk Island for the next day, before having a look around the town. We headed back to our apartment after a couple of hours and after a run along the beach it was an early night in preparation of a relaxing day on the island, soaking up some sun whilst lying on the beach. If only we had known!!

We got the water taxi across to the island in the morning and decided we would get an early afternoon taxi back so that we could explore the beach just in front of the apartment as well, and when we got to the island, one of the resort staff showed us some of the walks and activities that we could do on a huge map of the island. As we were only going to be there for a few hours we decided to see as much as possible, so after seeing a walking trail around the island on the map we set off with a couple of bottles of water to tide us over.

The first leg of the walk was going to be the toughest as it took us up and around the mountain to the lookout at the summit. Once we were passed the airstrip (nice small island, big posh resort!) we began the climb with the sun beating down. As the heat began to take its toll on us we must have become delusional, as each signpost seemed to have the same distances on them and no matter how far we walked, the end never seemed to be getting any closer!! After about an hour of struggling and sweating more than a fat kid in a sweet shop, we finally made it to the top where there was a seat overlooking the bay, and thankfully this one wasn't metal! We sat here for a while, enjoying the view, but enjoying even more the fact that we were no longer walking.

After about half an hour we had to move on, and we started the gradual descent around the other side of the mountain, which proved just as hard as going up. The trail continued through some areas of rainforest where at least there was some shelter from the sun, and finally out to the beach where we decided to have a refreshing dip in the water. However, your average bath is colder than what awaited us, and going into the water only made us sweat even more, so we were soon back on the walking track again.

The final stage took us past an artist's reserve and across the bog of eternal stench that must have been used in the David Bowie film Labyrinth, and when we finally came out of the trees and saw the airstrip again, we knew there wasn't much further to go. However, this turned out to be the worst part of all, as we were completely exposed to the sun and walking along beside the runway had the added joy(?) of the heat from the tarmac, and the end seemed to be forever in the distance.

By the time we got back to the bar there was only one thing to do, and that was to open a tab and wait for Lynn and Leslie, who we had lost shortly after the beach. On closer inspection of the map it turned out that we had walked 15km's up and down a walking track in temperatures exceeding thirty-five degrees, and that the signposts only showed the distance to the next signpost or point of interest!!

After about an hour we felt recovered enough to head to the boat to take us back, but even that wasn't easy as the sand scorched the bottom of our feet! By the time we got back to the apartment all we could do was jump into the (thankfully cold) swimming pool and order some pizzas to take away.

After the mother of all deep sleeps, we left South Mission Beach and arrived in Townsville just after noon today. We are thinking about going over to Magnetic Island, but there will definitely be no more walks of that magnitude!!